


The Diary of Cecily Rolfe

by orphan_account



Category: My Middle Ages Project - Fandom
Genre: Gen, Middle Ages, POV First Person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-23
Updated: 2017-03-23
Packaged: 2018-10-09 12:25:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10412124
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: The life of a serf. For the Middle Ages in school, we were asked to create a person that would live in the Middle Ages.omg this is so embarrassing but I just wanted to post something





	1. Chapter 1

April 3, 1352

Today is Monday, thus marking eight months since Father left for the Forester Manor, which twenty miles east of here, the Bennett Manor. Mother and Isabella have started to worry, especially since Lord Bennett came to our house today, enforcing that if our father does not come back within four months, completing a year of his absence, he shall be marked as dead to the village and my eldest brother William, nineteen and married, will become the new leader of our home. Father was supposed to come back after a mere half year, and two months have passed since he was scheduled to return. If he is marked as dead, we must pay a fee to the lord in exchange for William to become the head of house. This will be tough for our family, as with Father gone, we only have my brother to work in the fields. Mother, Isabella, and myself can do small crafts, earning a few extra pence, and Agnes, who at the age of eight is beginning to learn, but without our main source of income, harsh times have fallen on my family.  
April 18 is my birthday, and it will mark my fourteenth, becoming a grown adult. After the Black Death, Lord Bennett is in need of servants, and we are hoping to find me a job in the manor house. He pays one shilling a week, which could feed our family well and be able to pay the bill of our father’s death. We have arranged to plead for a job in the manorial court in a week or so.  
If I am able to take the job, it will greatly benefit our family. We make about one shilling and five pence a week, with William and Isabella’s husband, a man eighteen years of age, and Mother, myself, my sisters, and William’s wife doing crafts and selling in the village. This meager pay is not enough to feed us, especially with Isabella heavily pregnant, and eating nearly twice as much to nourish the baby. The doctor in the town which we sell our goods and wools in says that she is due in two months or so, making it very hard for her to work.   
If Isabella manages to carry the baby safely into the world, she and her husband will be overjoyed, as will my family and I. Agnes is exhilarated that she will have a new playmate. However, she shall soon face the bitter truth, that we are peasants, and that her days of joy will not last long, soon having to work for food. Mother is worried that the child will not be able to make it out in the harsh world, so carefree in the way only children are, but I know better, as I remember being the same way, and have turned out a vigorous worker.  
If the baby survives birth and is born a boy, he will be named Edwin, and if she is a girl, she will be named Edith. My sister picked these names because her husband dons the name Edwin as well, and Edith is the name of my mother’s mother, long dead but still remembered by my family.  
\- Time Skip -  
Mother is calling me. I seem to have forgotten to milk our cow, the poor thing. It is constantly overworked, being our source of dairy, and having to plow the fields.

Writ this day,  
Monday, the third of April,  
1952, in the village of the Bennett Manor


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> stuff happens yay

April 27, 1352

I turned fourteen nine days ago, and have started working at the manor as a servant just this Monday. It is Thursday today, so this is the fourth day of my employment. It is hard work as a servant, but we managed to get a wage that would greatly help my family. Lord Bennett will pay me fifteen pence a week, three pence more than what he originally promised. Mother had some doubts at first, thinking that he might overwork me, but our lord is kind, and that was not the case. The manor house is rather large, but there are enough servants for the work to be done. I am the fourth to join just this year. Times are getting better after the wrath of the plague, surely because the survivors, including my family and I, are passionately blessed.  
The first day as a servant was tough, but I have been through worse in the village. We got up at the crack of dawn, making sure to be punctual. Lady Celestria Bennett would not have her manor be any other way, as she said that her husband, the lord of the manor, Godwin Bennett, had invited guests over, arriving on the first of May and staying for three days.  
At dawn, my fellow young servant women and I, who stay in a secluded part of the manor, reported to the main meeting place, near the kitchen. Being new to the manor house, I was assigned to sweep the corridors, which get awfully dusty due to all of the windows. If I stay as a servant for long enough and gather prestige, I may get promoted to cooking, or even serving the lady of the manor, though for now that is a far-fetched daydream.  
Payday is Saturday, and we have Sunday off for Mass. The only church on the manor is near the village, so I will get to see my family once a week. I plan on giving my wages to my family, as my necessities are covered in the manor house. I will supply my family with my shilling, equal to twelve of the pence covered in my wages, and one of my pence as well, keeping two pence a week in case I need something.  
I look forward to seeing my family, as I have been rather lonely without their vibrance. Here in the manor house I live with the other servants, but there is not much time to talk, as Mrs. Nash, the head maid, has strict rules that we must follow. Anyhow, if even if there were more lenient rules, I have not had time to properly make acquaintances with any of my fellow servants.  
\- Time Skip -  
As I mentioned earlier, Mrs. Nash and Lady Bennett keep us on a tight schedule, so this will be the only time I have to write this week.  
Servant work is tiring, but I will pull through for my family, at least until Father comes home… or is deemed dead in the manorial court. That mustn't happen.

Writ this day,  
Thursday, the twenty-seventh of April,  
1952, in the Bennett Manor House


	3. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> lolololololol the end

June 4, 1352

Today brings sorrow and misery for me. My family has felt this anguish since Thursday, the first of June, soon to be a month condemned in my mind, and have told me today. As I am working in the manor house, which I have for several weeks now, I am not at home to get news until Sunday, when I travel to the church for Mass.  
The news I received today sends me into a fit of grief. Isabella went into labor for her baby on Thursday, and whilst the baby, a healthy boy whom is named Edwin, she did not make it through the birth. I know that many women die in childbirth, but it still seems rather surreal. To have my own sister die at the meager age of seventeen, and to know that I, in the near future, could face the same terrible fate.  
Even though the survivors of the plague are blessed, fate does not always deliver joy.  
All throughout Mass, the echoes of my mother delivering the news to me played throughout my head.  
Mother, where is Isabella?  
Cecily… she was able to deliver the baby, but she didn’t make it.  
I was not able to pay attention to the priest’s teachings. Maybe my fate has worsened now, and I will join Isabella in the grave.  
\- Time Skip -   
I lie on the straw bed tearfully in my family’s village residence writing this. Lord Bennett is kind, and he is letting me take three days off to grieve. Baby Edwin is sleeping beside me. We have to feed him, thus our poor cow will have to work even harder, supplying milk for the newest member of the house.  
I will have to give more of my pay to my family as well now, keeping a mere penny for myself. Even with these hard times, we will try to scrape through.  
\- Time Skip -  
“Cecily! Cecily! Come here now!” I hear my mother’s voice through the thin walls of the cottage. It takes a constant effort to drag myself out of bed, having lost my energy mourning.  
“Wh-what?”  
“Your father… I see him.”  
She is correct, as a cart of travelers approaches. Squinting in the light of the sun, I can make out a familiar face, as well as six other men.  
“Father!” I shout. Maybe this day is not so bad after all.  
“Cecily…” My father weakly smiled.  
\- Time Skip -  
Tears of sorrow turn to tears of joy as I leap into my father’s arms after ten months of separation.  
Writ this day,  
Sunday, the fourth of June,  
1952, with the comfort of my family in my arms.

**Author's Note:**

> Leave a comment or kudos I guess
> 
> Somehow I got an A+ on this, lol


End file.
